American Born Chinese written by Gene Luen Yang opens with the gods celebrating. The noise from the celebration drifts down to the monkeys on flower-fruit mountain led by the monkey king. The legend says that the monkey king was born out of a rock with rays of light shooting from his eyes that even heaven noticed. The monkey king studied the arts of kung fu. When he tried to attend an important party with the other rulers; however, he was rejected for not wearing any shoes. Embarrassed, he began fighting all the people in the party. He went home shaken, wishing his chamber didn't smell of monkey fur.

The next section of the book features a young Chinese boy. He tells how his parents both arrived in America within a week of one another, but they didn't meet until a year later at the San Francisco State University library where they were graduate students. His father became an engineer and his mother, a librarian. They moved into an apartment in Chinatown just before their son was born. When he was nine, he remembers going with his mother every Sunday to the herbalist. The herbalist told him he could become anything he wished, including a transformer, if he was willing to forget his soul.

That year they moved and the little boy, Jin Wang, was introduced to his new class at Mayflower Elementary. He avoided Suzy Nakamura, the only other Asian person in her class, because there were rumors that they were arranged to be married. The kids at school made fun of Jin's lunch, his teeth, and he had no friends. Finally, a fifth grade boy named Peter talked to him, but he mostly used him to beat up and make fun of. Then a new student arrived, Wei-Chen Sun, who reminded Jin of himself, but for some reason that made Jin dislike him Wei-Chen spoke to Jin in Chinese and tried to be friendly. He showed him the monkey robot toy that his father gave him before he left Taiwan, and slowly the two boys became friends.

In the next section we meet Danny who is studying with his attractive female tutor when he learns his cousin Chin-kee is coming to stay with them for a visit. Chin-kee epitomizes the stereotypical Chinese person. He speaks English with a strong accent, mentions Confucius, and laughs a lot.

The story then jumps back to the monkey king who has made a decree that all monkeys need to wear shoes. The monkey king then locked himself in his royal chamber to practice his kung fu and meditation. Then he worked on different ways to change his form: becoming a giant, becoming a miniature, cloning, and shape shifting. The monkey king emerges and announces his new name is the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven. He travels to see Ao-Kuang, Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, who wanted to have him killed for trespassing in heaven. The Dragon King calls his guard to execute him, but the guard has some trouble, which the Dragon King finds amusing. The Great Sage decides to show the Dragon King what he is capable of by making himself into his giant form and stepping on the Dragon King. The Dragon King believes in the Great Sage's powers and gives him a magic stick before he leaves. The Great Sage continues to visit the major rulers of the land to show them his powers. All of these gods and humans gather to complain to Tze-Yo-Tzuh (He Who Is) about the monkey king. This great god talks to the monkey king and explains that he created him and made him a monkey; therefore, he is a monkey. The monkey king doesn't believe him and wants him to prove it. Tze-Yo-Tzuh says that all of creation is within the reach of his hand, so the monkey king can never escape his reach. The Great Sage takes off as fast as he can, flying past planets and stars beyond the boundaries of reality. At the end of his journey, he comes to five pillars of gold where he carves his name into a pillar and pees on it before flying back. When he returns, he finds that the hand of Tze-Yo-Tzuh has his carving and pee on it, so he did not escape his reach after all. The old man tries to talk some sense into the monkey king, telling him to accept his place as a monkey, but instead the Great Sage chooses to fight. Tze-Yo-Tzuh then buries the monkey king under a mountain of rock for five hundred years.